Your Opinion: The big picture on health care

Your Opinion: The big picture on health care

December 5th, 2013by Linda Wenzlick, Jefferson City
in News

Dear Editor:

I am constantly amazed with the vigor with which this paper continues to find fault with the Affordable Care Act. Daily there seems to be some new flaw that needs to be proclaimed to the masses. In my view the boy is crying wolf.

Because we are fed a plethora of "concerns" and "cautions" that need to be announced we'll never know when the real concerns are being told. We hear everything from, "It's going to kill Grandma" to "My insurance just got cancelled. Now I'm never going to have health care ...."

In actuality there are not and never were death panels. Individuals that received cancellation notices received them because their substandard policies were no longer legal. Yet we have legislators that are actually trying to protect the crooks that are sticking it to unsuspecting consumers. Incredible!

I'm willing to bet that everyone reading this paper knows someone with serious financial issues resulting from insufficient health insurance. Isn't it interesting that when you ask folks from Canada or England or Germany about people suffering financial loss due to health care "coverage," they look at you like you're crazy?

We are the largest industrialized country on the planet and yet we can't get health care for all of our citizens! Also, there is no one out there that believes the attacks on ACA are anything but attempts to delegitimize President Obama.

After Medicare Part D passed both sides worked to improve it for seniors but that was when Congress, for the most part, actually governed instead of the playground that is our House of Representatives now. Let's ask what is the GOP plan to get health care to Americans?

Again today we have a large article highlighting how folks are not being "responsible" rather than the real problem - health care companies are first beholden to their stockholders, not the insured, and it is their mission to make profits first coverage second. The ACA attempts to put the brakes on some of the practices used by shady companies that issue faulty policies to consumers.

It's time to look at the big picture. When we are healthier we have a better quality of life, we live longer, and we need less from health services. Good health is a win for the American people and those that truthfully promote this are the ones that are worthy of election - period!